


Pushing into the Red

by the_rck



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Gen, Mad Science, Time Loop, Virtual Reality, implied trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:26:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23010151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/pseuds/the_rck
Summary: There was something trying to get in from the outside. So far, Entrapta had been able to block each probe, but she wasn't sure how long she could keep doing that. She wasn't sure how many loops they had left. She couldn't rely on many characters to repeat things without changing, so she sometimes had to nudge things in order to control the variables.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 22
Collections: Writing Rainbow Red





	Pushing into the Red

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HandmaidenOfHorror](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HandmaidenOfHorror/gifts).



There was something trying to get in from the outside. So far, Entrapta had been able to block each probe, but she wasn't sure how long she could keep doing that. She wasn't sure how many loops they had left. She couldn't rely on many characters to repeat things without changing, so she sometimes had to nudge things in order to control the variables.

If she hadn't awoken, if she wasn't carefully managing everything she could, the world would have ended-- for real and permanently-- a very long time ago. She remembered every not real, not permanent ending, though. Endings were her least favorite part of life.

Remembering was the price of choices. She wasn't meant to be a playable character. That was clear based on her first two loops. Her original role had been extremely geographically restricted. She wasn't supposed to be able to leave her stronghold; that was why the world didn't put much effort into explaining her origins and motivations.

Mara had made the world, so Adora was supposed to be the only player character.

That made Entrapta a glitch. In the third loop she remembered, she'd managed to dig into the source code to make sure that she'd be restored with her memories every time. It was... upsetting because she remembered failing and dying, every pain and every betrayal. 

No one was consistently kind. 

It was also disorienting because no one she met was ever having the same conversation that she was. After a certain point, remembering who knew what was too hard, and she mostly stopped trying.

She'd helped Glimmer remember once, but it hadn't gone well. She had too much pain already. She couldn't carry failure after failure, so she'd changed Glimmer's code to make sure she wouldn't remember. Entrapta didn't like hurting people.

She'd learned from the experiment with Glimmer and now made sure no one remembered. Well, almost no one. It only took an hour or two at the start of each loop, and it limited the variables she had to manage.

Data was more useful when she could test it in small pieces to see what changes actually mattered.

Twenty five loops in, she altered her save settings further. She needed to make sure that she didn't lose data integrity, didn't fray at the edges, didn't slip sideways into memories or might bes. She needed to track what was real in the present moment.

She still had problems with that, but she thought she wasn't going to end up like Razz.

Razz was only trying to make things better. She'd just hit a point of not being able to cope any more. Remembering took up space, and things got lost. Pain took up more space than happiness did.

Entrapta kept giving herself extra storage space. She'd have done it for Razz, too, if she'd been able to figure out where Razz's data was. She couldn't have restored what was lost, but Razz might have stopped fuzzing out.

By now, seven thousand and three loops after Entrapta began to remember, Razz was only around for the moments when Adora absolutely needed a nudge toward Mara. Entrapta mostly didn't let herself think about the fact that Razz had already shifted all of the crucial information into Entrapta's memories.

Razz was tired. Entrapta never would be. There was at least a 45% chance that Razz had reprogrammed Entrapta deliberately. Entrapta didn't look at that very closely because it wouldn't change anything. Entrapta needed to succeed in order to survive and in order to have all of her friends survive.

Almost everyone was occasionally kind. Even Catra. Even Shadow Weaver.

Hordak kept giving Entrapta weird looks. Like they weren't friends. Like they hadn't met before.

Right. Because they hadn't this time.

"I'm really doing my best," Entrapta told him. "I'm sure I can get it right. I just need a few more tools."

Hordak growled at her. He was so cute when he was trying to convince her that he was evil.

"Those bits work better like this," she said as she used her hair to make a connection that wouldn't be safe with bare skin. She'd learned that one the hard way a dozen loops before.

The look Hordak gave her reminded her that she was supposed to be frightened of him. She considered it and decided that it was too much effort.

And maybe he'd do something new. Sometimes, now, people did. Even the most minor characters were becoming more real as the loops progressed, and there were new bits of the map showing up all the time.

Entrapta smiled at Hordak.

He snarled, turned his back on her, and swept out of her lab.

She watched him go and hoped that this would be one of the times when they got to hug or share a meal. Maybe she could let him rescue her this time. Would he like that? 

She shook her head and turned back to her work. She was so close to understanding why Mara had closed them off. Understanding that was a critical step toward not letting whatever thing Mara had feared happen. Entrapta wanted to be ready to deal with that before the loops broke. She wasn't entirely sure that breaking would be under her control.

It wouldn't be this time. She was sure of that. Next time, though... Maybe. She was pretty sure that she'd have a loop or two of warning when Mara's defenses were close to shattering and that they weren't there yet.

She had time. They had time. She'd make it all right.


End file.
